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amak11 on 02 August 2014
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spemanig said:


That's what I mean though. I get that PowerPC is more efficient, but what does that matter if no one but Nintendo uses it? If it's easier to develop for, wouldn't it be better for Nintendo to use x86? And what are the advantaged of ARM over both? Why would Nintendo use that instead of Power PC next gen, and would the be able to maintain BC with ARM or would they be starting from scratch like with the PS4 and XBO? Would they have to emulate the Wii U like they do with the Wii, or would it be as simple as plugging in one hardrive into the new system and running it from the new consoles OS natively?

It's not necessarily easier to develop for, but it's easier for developers to make games on. 

ARMs advantages mainly are lower power consumption and efficiency. This is just saying though, it would take only 4 cores of the PS4 to match/beat the CPU power of the Wii U ( and PS3 and 360) which is largely due to efficency. ARM is PowerPC, just for clarification so you don't get confused. Both terms are being thrown around here (Wii U cpu is ARM9). They wouldn't be able to maintain BC with the Wii U next gen if they went with x86 so it would be the same as PS4/XBO so starting from scratch. They wouldn't be able to emulate the Wii U on x86 (nor will any PC for the next 6 - 8 years). Wii is slightly possible, as with Gamecube (then again Gamecube is possible now on the Wii U if they chose to make a Gamecube app). It wouldn't be as simple as plugging a hard drive in to a new system (Wii U uses flash, same with Wii)

My thought on the Wii U currently is that they are rushing out account features and console features to catch up with the joneses. Then again, Nintendo did something Sony and MS could have done but didnt and a launched a social gamer network which is popular with devs and people alike. My suggestion is wait and see what they do with the Wii U feature wise in the next year or two and we'll go from there. If I'm right Nintendo will seperate all purchases on Wii Us in to dedicated accounts and launch it with a 3Ds successor which will be future compatible with the next home console and compatible with the Wii U. All this is shaping up to be a different Nintendo in 5 years.